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Etemadifar et al. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2017;4:69-77 Neuroimmunology and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-8659.2017.02
Neuroinflammation

www.nnjournal.net
Review Open Access

Neuroimaging of corpus callosum in central

nervous system demyelinating disorders

Masoud Etemadifar , Amir Neshatfar , Amir Arsalan Zamani , Mehri Salari 1
3
2
1
1 Department of Neurology, Alzahra General Hospital, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 8174675731, Iran.
2 Multiple Sclerosis and Neuro-Immunology Research Center, Isfahan 8174675731, Iran.
3 Department of Radiology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Amir Neshatfar, Multiple Sclerosis and Neuro-Immunology Research Center, Isfahan 8174675731, Iran.
E-mail: amir_date3@yahoo.com
How to cite this article: Etemadifar M, Neshatfar A, Zamani AA, Salari M. Neuroimaging of corpus callosum in central nervous system
demyelinating disorders. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2017;4:69-77.
ABSTRACT
Article history: Corpus callosum (CC) is the largest white matter structure in the brain, consisting of 200-
Received: 12-01-2017 250 million contralateral axonal projections. It is the major commissural pathway connecting
Accepted: 18-04-2017 the hemispheres of human brain. The pathology of CC includes wide variety of entities that
Published: 27-04-2017 arise from different causes such as congenital, inflammatory, tumoral, degenerative, infectious, etc.
This study reviews the most reliable neuroimaging data of human CC in central nervous
Key words: system (CNS) demyelinating diseases to facilitate the understanding of different pathological
Corpus callosum, entities of the CC and their role in anticipation of probable prognostic findings. After a brief
central nervous system, description of normal anatomy and functions of CC, this review examines the most valuable
demyelinating diseases, findings obtained using conventional and functional magnetic resonance imaging. It also
neuroimaging, demonstrates the most well organized findings of how CC features influence prognostic
review factors of demyelinating disorders, which could have a great value for choosing proper therapy
methods. The authors also provided a brief review of other demyelinating disorders which are
primarily caused by other pathological factors other than autoimmunity. As a conclusion, the
authors showed the importance of CC as an critical part of the brain, which should be explored
by different methods of imaging, correspondent to clinical evaluation of CNS demyelinating
disorder to widen our knowledge on pathology and clinical patterns of such disorders.

INTRODUCTION fiber types, with varied thickness and myelin sheath
variations. The callosal tracts are frequently affected
Corpus callosum (CC) is the largest fiber bundle that in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other
connects cortical and subcortical regions of the brain. demyelinating disorders such as acute disseminated
It also interconnects both cerebral hemispheres, encephalomyelitis (ADEM), Devic’s neuromyelitis
promoting functional integration of sensory and motor optica, marchiafava bignami (MBD), etc. Magnetic
functions. The CC is composed of many different resonance imaging (MRI) is the gold standard imaging

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